/m/general

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

Basically, Rask is absolutely sure that Fernando Martinez is going to become his generation's Frank Robinson. No, I think he's absolutely sure that he's going to be better than Frank Robinson. I would name more names, but I'm deadly terrified that Rasky will then just trump those, too.

I think Fernando is a special player. I'll keep quiet for now, and we'll revisit this in mid-season after he's been through A+ ball.

(I'm not certain that he'll be Frank Robinson, that's *top* of the pyramid, but I do think he'll be better than Cronin, Boudreau, Allen, Rolen, and maybe Snider.)

Well, the big issue that has received relatively little attention is the luxury tax implication. The $51M doesn't count against the tax. So let's say the Sox actually agree to $30M/3yrs. What's the marginal tax rate? 40%? So that's a total of $51M + $30M*1.4 = $93M for 3 years. If they sign Zito for $80M/5yrs, with it all counting against the tax, that's really $112M after tax. So the difference is $19M over the last two years, minus whatever revenues they can get overseas, minus whatever goodwill they can build up to re-sign him, etc. It almost kinda makes sense.

The next CBA negotiation is a long time away, but I wonder if it were just a year or two away, if some teams would be agitating to have posting fees counted against the luxury tax. I would guess the union wouldn't put up a fight on that one.

Well, that was my thinking. If they intend to go right upto/beyond the threshold, this makes sense.

Well, more sense than it does at face value I mean. Whether it makes more sense than signing Zito or Schmidt or somebody depends on whether (a) they think Matsu is a better risk than one of those guys and (b) how much overseas revenue they can make.